An innovative approach to cybersecurity

Maj. Gen. Mark E. Bartman is the Ohio adjutant general. He is a member of the governor's cabinet and is responsible for the command of more than 16,000 personnel in Ohio National Guard, which consists of the Ohio Army National Guard, Ohio Air National Guard, Ohio Military Reserve and Ohio Naval Militia.

Weak passwords, outdated software or an email attachment that contains malicious code can lead to a cybersecurity breach affecting one home computer or an entire network. In Ohio alone, there have been two recent incidents where government networks were brought down by these cyber attacks.

Gov. John Kasich is taking this threat to our security seriously. At his request 18 months ago, the Ohio National Guard began bringing together public, private, military and educational organizations to form the Ohio Cyber Collaboration Committee (OC3). Today, this diverse group of more than 100 individuals includes representatives from the University of Cincinnati.

The OC3 mission is to provide a collaborative environment to develop a stronger cybersecurity infrastructure and workforce. We are taking a unique approach to making Ohio a center of cyber excellence and innovation.

Among the committee's goals is the creation of a cyber range – a virtual environment used for cybersecurity training and technology development testing.

This virtual training ground will better prepare our youth for careers in the cybersecurity field. The cyber range will enable us to hold competitions and training at all levels to include students from kindergarten to college. It will also provide our schools, governments and businesses a space to test cybersecurity infrastructure and software.

The first phase of the range will be functional in the second half of 2017 and will consist of individual training and certification, table top cyber exercises, and cyber contests for students. Future phases are in the planning stages and will expand the scope and functionality across Ohio's colleges, universities and high schools, providing curriculum support and enlarging Ohio's cyber workforce.

There's a growing demand from employers looking for cybersecurity professionals. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for information security analysts – with a median salary in 2015 of a little more than $43 an hour – is expected to grow by 18 percent between 2014 and 2024. That's faster than the average for all occupations. To meet the demand for these high-paying jobs, the OC3 will also be developing a program to increase the number of students who pursue certificates or degrees in cybersecurity.

In addition to the cyber range and improving the training and education opportunities, OC3 is also developing cyber incident response teams. The teams will have trained, qualified volunteers who will be able to provide emergency assistance in incident containment, eradication and recovery to eligible small public and private sector organizations.

Every Ohioan has an important role to play when it comes to cybersecurity, which is why OC3 will also identify and share best practices, policies and technologies. The committee will use public awareness tools to educate and inform about good cybersecurity practices, and ensure cyber threats are part of emergency planning at all levels of the public and private sector.

By bringing together representatives from various public, private, education and military entities, OC3 has created a unique opportunity to share cyber threat intelligence. Collaboration will be encouraged in an environment that nurtures research, development and testing – while preserving classified data, personal privacy and proprietary information.

Gov. Kasich's OC3 initiative shows Ohio's commitment to keeping the state ahead of the curve with new technologies and innovations, making strategic investments to ensure our state's continuing leadership in areas such as cybersecurity and the cyber range.

As OC3 partners continue to collaborate on strategies to accomplish the goals, I urge organizations and cybersecurity professionals interested in becoming involved with the committee to contact Mark Bell, cybersecurity outreach coordinator, at mark.a.bell16.nfg@mail.mil.